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News from Hampton Roads and Northeast North CarolinaTue, 03 Mar 2015 22:19:18 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/http://1.gravatar.com/blavatar/3f4d94e849e66b7284fb8558e31bc76e?s=96&d=http%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngWTKR.comhttp://wtkr.com
Police: Man found drunk, passed out inside vehicle with drugs and 12,000 in cashhttp://wtkr.com/2015/03/03/police-man-found-drunk-passed-out-inside-vehicle-with-drugs-and-12000-in-cash/
http://wtkr.com/2015/03/03/police-man-found-drunk-passed-out-inside-vehicle-with-drugs-and-12000-in-cash/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 22:19:05 +0000http://wtkr.com/?p=241911]]>Portsmouth, Va. – A 36-year-old Portsmouth man is facing several charges after police say they found him passed out drunk inside of a vehicle along with illegal drugs and 12,000 in cash.

This happened during a D.U.I. investigation on March 2nd, 2015 at around 1:37 a.m.

Officers say they found a parked vehicle at the intersection of Coolidge Street and Chestnut Street.

They say it appeared that no one was inside initially, but they found a man inside of the driver’s seat passed out.

They turned the vehicle’s engine off and tried to wake the man up, who was later identified as Gregory D. Daughtry.

During this investigation, authorities say they found that Daughtry was drunk and he was then taken into custody on suspicion of D.U.I.

Police say they also found illegal drugs consistent with the sale and distribution of the drug. They also found 12,000 in cash.

Daughtry has been charged with possession with the intent to distribute drugs, possession of drugs within 1,000 fee of a school and D.U.I.

]]>http://wtkr.com/2015/03/03/police-man-found-drunk-passed-out-inside-vehicle-with-drugs-and-12000-in-cash/feed/0Gregory D. DaughtrydoristaylorwtkrUK twins turn heads: One is white, the other blackhttp://wtkr.com/2015/03/03/uk-twins-turn-heads-one-is-white-the-other-black/
http://wtkr.com/2015/03/03/uk-twins-turn-heads-one-is-white-the-other-black/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 21:19:46 +0000http://wtkr.com/?p=241918]]>Here’s a pair of twins no one will have trouble telling apart: One is white, and one is black.

Thanks to a rare quirk of nature, Lucy is the alabaster-skinned redhead, and Maria has their part-Jamaican mother’s dark skin and hair.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Edward Snowden’s lawyer says he is ready to come home to the United States.

The former National Security Agency contractor’s Russian lawyer said he’s ready to leave the country that offered him political asylum in 2013 and return to the United States as long as he gets a fair trial.

“He is thinking about it. He has a desire to return and we are doing everything we can to make it happen,” said Anatoly Kucherena, Snowden’s lawyer, Agence-France Presse reported Tuesday.

Snowden has remained in Russia since he leaked thousands of classified documents to media outlets that he obtained while working for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.

“We’re certainly happy for him to return to the United States to face a court in the very serious charges” he faces, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Tuesday.

“So he absolutely can and should return to the United States to face the justice system that will be fair in its judgment of him,” she said. “But he is accused of very serious crimes and should return home to face them.”

Kucherena said Snowden has so far received a guarantee from Attorney General Eric Holder that he will not face the death penalty — but that Snowden also wants a guarantee of a “legal and impartial trial.”

Such a trial, Snowden’s legal advisers have said, would mean he wouldn’t face charges under the Espionage Act, a World War I-era law that was used to charge Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg.

Snowden’s lawyer said he’s allowed to travel outside Russia now under a three-year Russian residency permit, but that he believes Snowden would be taken immediately to a U.S. embassy as soon as he leaves the country.

“With a group of lawyers from other countries, we are working on the question of his return to America,” Kucherena said.

The House cleared legislation Tuesday that will keep the agency operating through the end of September after a standoff last week threatened to shutter the agency and furlough thousands of workers. The 257-167 vote sends the bill to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner, who rarely casts votes, backed the bill, along with his top lieutenants. A majority of House Republicans opposed the bill. Just 75 GOP lawmakers joined with 182 Democrats to push it across the finish line.

The legislation does nothing to rein in Obama’s immigration executive orders — a top priority of conservatives. That issue was a sticking point for weeks as Republicans tried to tie DHS funding to the repeal of the orders but the party couldn’t overcome Democratic filibusters in the Senate.

The debate sparked plenty of drama on Capitol Hill over the past week. The House stayed in session late into the night on Friday after conservatives helped block a bill that would have kept DHS open for 3 weeks. Amid rumors of a potential coup, Speaker John Boehner pushed through a bill that kept the agency open until March 6 — just enough time to work out today’s deal.

Boehner told his members Tuesday morning that he had run out of options and the Senate couldn’t pass a bill with immigration language attached.

He asked if anyone had any questions and not one member stood up or complained.

]]>http://wtkr.com/2015/03/03/house-passes-clean-homeland-security-bill-funding-agency-through-end-of-september/feed/0homelandwtkrmattknightToo much Facebook leads to envy and depressionhttp://wtkr.com/2015/03/03/too-much-facebook-leads-to-envy-and-depression/
http://wtkr.com/2015/03/03/too-much-facebook-leads-to-envy-and-depression/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 20:55:55 +0000http://wtkr.com/?p=241909]]>NEW YORK — Constantly checking Facebook to see what your friends are doing could lead to some serious depression.

A recent study conducted by researchers at Nanyang Technological University, Bradley University and the University of Missouri Columbia found that heavy Facebook users can experience envy — which can ultimately lead to extreme sadness.

The researchers surveyed 736 college students and found that, basically, if you quietly stalk your friends on Facebook and then realize that your life doesn’t measure up to theirs, you feel bad about yourself.

“If Facebook is used to see how well an acquaintance is doing financially or how happy an old friend is in his relationship — things that cause envy among users — use of the site can lead to feelings of depression,” said Margaret Duffy, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

This isn’t just a college phenomenon. I am nearing middle age and I can relate.

Facebook is a huge part of my life. Like most Facebook users, I have the app on my phone. I check it at work. I check it at home. I check it when I am out. If I am in a subway station with Wi-Fi, I check it there too.

I am up to date on all my friends, their kids and whatever they are reading at that moment. Unfortunately, it’s an addiction that I can’t quit.

Facebook has allowed me a little window into my friends’ lives back home. They have babies — well some of them have teenagers. They have lovely homes. And the dinners — oh the dinners they serve! There are food presentations that look like something out of a Martha Stewart magazine. I watch all the videos of their kids saying the darndest things. I click on their pictures of vacations in exotic places.

I have come to the conclusion that Facebook is a lifestyle magazine featuring my friends, who are doing it better than me.

I peruse Facebook from computer on my coffee table, because I am not grown up enough to buy a desk for myself. My coffee table is my all-purpose table. I eat there too — usually hunks of cheese with a knife and no crackers. That’s right no crackers, because I am too lazy to run out to the bodega.

My only consolation is sometimes my friends confuse “there,” “their” and “they’re” in their posts about their lovely vacations and darling children. Then suddenly, I feel a little bit better about myself.

]]>http://wtkr.com/2015/03/03/too-much-facebook-leads-to-envy-and-depression/feed/0facebookdoristaylorwtkrPrincipal subject of one of the ‘coolest senior pranks ever’http://wtkr.com/2015/03/03/principal-subject-of-one-of-the-coolest-senior-pranks-ever/
http://wtkr.com/2015/03/03/principal-subject-of-one-of-the-coolest-senior-pranks-ever/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 20:44:13 +0000http://wtkr.com/?p=241906]]>Think back to your high school’s senior prank. Maybe you and your pals slipped a pig into the building or greased all the door handles or turned all the chairs upside-down.

So it’s no surprise that Wichita high school Principal Sherman Padgett was reluctant to play along last week when a student showed up and told him to stand in the hallway holding a bucket.

“She didn’t say anything about why. She just said ‘hold the bucket,’ ” the North High School principal told CNN affiliate KWCH. “I’m not going to hold the bucket unless I have a little inkling of why it could be.”

Good thing he changed his mind.

Once he did, student after student streamed by, dropping notes of praise and thanks into the bucket.

“Thank you for making high school the best years of my life,” one said.

“You’ve made my first year experience in America one that I will always fondly remember,” read another.

One student recalled how Padgett “helped me get through my eating disorder and helped me get into therapy.”

The notes were the idea of senior Emily Jones. She decided she wanted to do something nice for the principal and cooked up the plan with her mother.

“Padgett’s an awesome principal,” she said.

For Padgett, who has been principal at North since 2006, the experience was priceless.

“Became a little emotional on some of them,” he said, “I kind of read them and thought, ‘man, this is better than a paycheck. This is why I do the things that I do.’ “

The Newport News Fire Department responded to reports of a kitchen fire at the Courthouse Green Apartments in the 300 block of Civil Court around 10:15 a.m.

A deputy from the Newport News Sheriff’s Office arrived and helped a woman get out of the apartment. The deputy attended to the victim until the fire department arrived.

The woman was taken via Nightengale Air Ambulance to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for treatment. Her burn injuries are significant but don’t appear to be life threatening.

Firefighters were able to control the fire and contain it to the kitchen area. The cause was attributed to unattended cooking resulting in a pot of grease igniting. The fire then spread to other areas of the kitchen.

The damage is estimated to be $10,000. The apartment was condemned and three adult residents were displaced.

The federal jury selected Tuesday is made up of eight men and 10 women, many of whom said they believed Tsarnaev was involved in the 2013 bombings that killed three people and left at least 264 injured.

The 18-member jury — 12 primary jurors and six alternates — includes a house painter eager to “serve my country,” a man in his 20s who practices the Baha’i faith and speaks Farsi, and a water department employee who said he thinks the death penalty would be “the easy way out.”

They will determine whether Tsarnaev is guilty of participating in the bombing, and they could be asked to impose the death penalty if they decide he is.

Tsarnaev is charged with one count of using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death and one count of malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive device resulting in death.

Prosecutors accuse Tsarnaev of working with his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, to set off two bombs made from pressure cookers near the marathon’s crowded finish line.

The bombs, packed with BB-like pellets and nails, exploded 12 seconds apart, spraying the crowd with shrapnel. The victims included an 8-year-old boy, a 29-year-old woman and a graduate student from China.

Three days later, authorities say, the brothers killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer, then led police on a wild chase in which they threw explosives out the car windows and exchanged gunfire with police.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in the mayhem that night. He had been shot, suffered injuries from an explosion and had been run over by his fleeing brother, according to authorities.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found the next day, hiding in a boat in the backyard of a home in Watertown, Massachusetts.

Although Massachusetts hasn’t had a death penalty on its books in three decades, and the state hasn’t executed anyone since 1947, the death penalty is an option because the case is being tried in federal court — where the death penalty remains an option for some crimes, including terror-related offenses.

Many of the jurors who made the final cut seemed willing to consider the death penalty.

One juror, a restaurant manager, said she would have no problem choosing the death penalty if the evidence was there. “I don’t feel like I’m sending someone to death or life in prison,” she said. “Their actions got them there. I’m following the law.”

Another woman, an executive assistant at a law firm, said initially that she wasn’t sure she could vote for the death penalty. But under questioning, she reconsidered, saying, “If I came to that decision based on the evidence I heard, then yes.”

Awaiting your arrival with a welcoming smile, a claim ticket and a tacit understanding that you’ll know how to properly reciprocate ($5) when it’s time to retrieve your car.

Followed by the bellman ($2 first bag, $1 each additional).

And the concierge ($5 to $20, depending on the task), who can recommend several good bistros in the area and help with hard-won reservations.

Later, the taxi driver whisks you to your restaurant (10-20%) where the maitre d’ has gone the extra distance ($10 plus, quietly) to secure the perfect window-side table with the sort of grace and palm-nourished professionalism rivaled only by your sommelier (discretionary), waiter (15-20%) and restroom attendant (a buck if you take the towel and mint; more for emergency supplies and quick marital advice).

Back at the hotel, your suite has been carefully prepared by an invisible but very much existent and equally deserving housekeeper ($2 to $5 per day).

And on it goes.

Spa therapists and hairdressers (15-20%).

Skycaps ($1 per bag, $2 for heavy ones) and tour guides (15%-ish is most appreciated).

And now, all of a sudden, let’s not forget the dude manning the register at the indie pizza joint, gastro-pub or premium ice cream parlor who swipes your card and then swivels the screen around to let you discreetly e-tip a suggested default amount — 10% …15% … 18% … 25% … and here it comes 30% (for over-the-counter grub) — while he politely looks away.

Yes, there’s also a “No Gratuity” option at the bottom of the screen if you’re that person.

And not to worry.

No one’s judging you to your face.

Whatever you feel is right, pal.

Social contract

Is there anyone you needn’t tip on your next trip to the States aside from the guy at customs (not recommended)?

“Servers work in the U.S. with the expectation to be tipped — it’s a social contract,” says Cornell professor Michael Lynn, a specialist in consumer psychology and the socioeconomic impacts of tipping.

“To come here and accept the service of these people, visitors are implicitly accepting those terms. To tip in a manner consistent with our norms.”

Not that they always do.

Or are legally required to.

No one is.

Americans don’t need laws to dutifully dole out more than $40 billion annually in restaurant tips alone according to economist Ofer Azar.

Or to espouse a once-reviled, centuries-old institution imported (and more or less deported) from Europe where service charges and loose change have largely taken over.

Tipping was once so hated in America that six U.S. states officially outlawed it in the early 20th century.

The practice once spawned an Anti-Tipping Society of America (lobbied by traveling salesman) and has been branded “un-American” in at least one Humphrey Bogart movie.

And, yet, tipping in America has survived all that. And thrived in spite of it.

Today, Americans love tipping more than ever.

At least that’s what mystified visitors to the U.S. might surmise — not entirely correctly.

A recent Cornell study shows that 44% of Americans would prefer restaurant waitstaff be paid higher wages instead of relying almost entirely on tips for income.

Most states allow employers to claim a “tip credit” which can effectively reduce their minimum hourly wage obligation for tipped employees to as low as $2.13.

Ubiquitous tip jars

On the other hand, 95% of Americans still prefer tipping over an automatic Euro-style service charge added to the bill — an increasingly popular move in domestic tourism industries like cruise lines (and hub cities like Miami) that attract foreign clientele who either don’t comply with U.S. tipping norms or begrudgingly do but wish they didn’t have to.

“Oh, how I hate the American tipping custom,” laments a New Zealand businessman on traveller.com. “I just hope Americans can be understanding of foreigners who either don’t know or understand the system, or simply don’t have small denomination cash on them.”

“I think it’s awful that these people have to rely on tipping to make a decent wage,” posts a VirtualTourist international traveler in New York City. “We will tip the expected amount, of course, but I just feel it’s a lot to add onto our bills.”

All grumbling aside, what is the expected amount to tip in the U.S.?

And when?

And why is 25% suddenly the new 18%?

And should those ubiquitous tip jars at every cash register be weighing on one’s conscience too?

Is there a failsafe U.S. tipping guide that can neatly answer all those questions?

“There is no definitive guide to tipping,” says Lynn. “There have been a number of studies done on tipping guidelines and it’s actually kind of complicated—not at all straight forward.”

Lynn’s studies have, however, found a lot of consistency between the general figures listed in guidebooks or online with what real people actually tip according to smaller-scale academic studies.

Americans, he also notes, aren’t just tipping for the classic reason (to reward good service) but for several others — including social approval, guilt reduction and an overall sense of basic duty and moral obligation.

The good news, if you’re just visiting, is you can set all those reasons aside.

But you should still tip, within reason.

Not 30% for an already pricey waffle cone.

But not a measly 10% for a meal unless you’re truly unhappy with the service or pretending it’s still 1958 (in Ohio, not Copenhagen).

“Research shows that people tend to take their tipping habits with them,” says Lynn. “The bigger disparity between what they’re used to and the culture they’re traveling to, the more perplexed they’ll be.”

But that’s not you.

Here are some helpful tipping points to store with all those small bills.

Food and drink

Tipping 15-20% of the bill before tax (“some would say 15-30% now,” says Lynn) is the average range for waitstaff, skewing higher for great service. Leaving 10% reflects substandard service, zero abominable.

The old “two pennies on the table” statement just fans flames. (It’s a not-so-sly insult that let’s the server know you didn’t merely forget to leave a tip.) If need be, speak to a manager instead.

Bartender: $1 to $2 per drink or the same percentage on your tab as you’d tip a waiter.

You don’t normally hand over a tip directly to a waiter or bartender.

Although the practice astonishes some international visitors (who perhaps assume lawlessness lurks around many a corner in the United States) it’s standard practice, once your bill is settled, to simply leave the tip on the table or bar top and leave. No one will steal it.

No obligation for takeout, but 10% for special service like curb delivery or larger orders is good form, says emilypost.com.

Tipping the hotel maid daily ($2 to $5) — directly, under the pillow or with a little note marked “housekeeping” — ensures the right person receives it and that your room looks the part during your stay.

Room service: tip at least $5 unless gratuity is included in the check, says businessinsider.com.

Transportation

Valet: $2 to $5, generally when the car is returned to you.

Courtesy shuttle: $1 to $2 per bag if your driver helps you with them.

Taxis, limos, vans and paid shuttles: 15% of the total fare and up to 20% for above-and-beyond service, advises tipguide.org.

Head to heel

Hair: 15% will suffice but the “cardinal rule” for salons is 20%, says stylelist.com.

(CNN) — The faded downtown of a small town in Georgia, made famous by an appearance on “The Walking Dead,” can now be yours for the right price.

Nine buildings in downtown Grantville, Georgia are for sale on eBay and the seller tells CNN it’s a bargain.

Jim Sells, Grantville’s former mayor, bought the buildings in a foreclosure deal about four years ago during the recession. Sells and another investor are now putting them on the market for the starting bid of $680,000.

The town was the setting for “Clear,” an episode in season three of the hit AMC television show in which protagonist Rick Grimes returns to his abandoned hometown to look for weapons. A Facebook page offers walking tours of the town’s filming locations.

But soon that won’t be Grantville’s only claim to fame, Sells says.

The former mayor says that four movies are slated to be shot in Grantville in upcoming months.

Since the sale was first announced, Sells says thousands of people have checked out the listing. He says potential buyers are asking “lots of serious questions about revenues and property taxes.”

Sells says Grantville has plenty of potential but has been overlooked by developers.

“It’s a great picturesque little town,” he says. “This is a bargain price.”

The eBay sale will end March 26. No returns or exchanges, the listing says.